Titus 3:3-7
Some friends and I recently remodeled my kitchen. It was fun for the first thirty minutes, but then it became grueling grunt work. We had to carefully remove the cabinets, tear out the floor tiles, sand down the surfaces, demolish the counters, paint the walls, install a new stove, and watch hours of YouTube tutorials. It was a lot of work just to destroy my house, let alone put it back together. After a few weeks, I was finally able to marvel at marble floors, granite counter-tops, and pristine white cabinets with modern hardware. Do you know what my biggest regret was? No, it wasn’t that I didn’t install a pizza oven (that’s up there, though). It was that I forgot to take a picture of my kitchen before the demolition.
Have you ever seen a before and after picture? There is something both sensational and satisfying about looking at those photos. Whether it’s a kitchen renovation, major weight-loss, a new hairstyle, a fitness journey, a makeup routine, or one of those short videos where a bunch of random ingredients become a unicorn-shaped cake, people are obsessed with before and after.
Paul, when closing out his letter to Titus, is praising their before and after. No, he wasn’t talking about a new fad diet. He was celebrating the salvation that came through Jesus. Paul reminds us that “one time [they] were enslaved” (3:3) and now “through God’s kindness” they have “become heirs having the hope of eternal
life” (3:7). This is a powerful before and after picture— and it’s our story, too.
One of the most famous Christian songs of all time is called “Amazing Grace.” It speaks of the universe-shifting force that changes everything for you and me— God’s grace. God understands your failures, shortcomings, struggles, and mistakes, but He loves you anyway. That’s grace. It’s an unmerited, unearned favor that you have found in the Father.
God’s love isn’t predicated on performance or personality. He just loves you. Simple as that. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you less. Even on your worst days when you struggle to love yourself, God still loves you.
God’s grace changes everything for you and me. You don’t deserve it. You cannot earn it. You cannot lose it. That’s what’s so amazing about grace!
Reflection: How have you seen God transform you through grace?